A team of experts have called on the federal government to properly fund the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), for it to deliver on its mandate.
The call was made yesterday at the ongoing Africa Space Economy conference holding in Abuja. The conference with the theme: Exploring Space Economy for Africa’s Economic Growth is a collaboration between NASRDA and Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI).
The Chief Executive Officer of NISA Premiere, Dr. Ibrahim Wada in his paper on Healthcare dynamics, challenges and space technology, said this is the time to begin to invest in facilities that will enable Nigerians to take advantage of latest developments in space technology to advance their Healthcare.
He said NASRDA has what it takes to compete with any other space agency in the world, but the challenge is limited funds. According to him, “If NASRDA has a fraction of the support that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), has, it will do wonders and Nigeria can be on the moon in the next 15 years. I say this with every sense of patriotism, that the government needs to properly fund the NASRDA for it to function properly.”
On his part, the Managing Director of Atlantic Factorial, Dr. Olugbenga Leke Oyewole who spoke on: Inspiring the next generation of technology driven Healthcare provision: A call to action, said there so much Nigeria can do to improve its Healthcare delivery using telemedicine, but unfortunately the government is not putting its money where it’s mouth is.
He said if the government really cares about the people, it should put the money it is saving from removal of fuel subsidy in the development of telemedicine in the country.
According to him, “NASRDA is currently promoting a Healthcare programme using space technology that if fully developed, there would be no need for medical tourism any more because right in the comfort of your home, you can have access to the best doctors anywhere in the world.
“The only National programme to promote telemedicine in Nigeria is the collaboration NASRDA has with the Federal ministry of health. We are presently doing a test run of our model centre at the National hospital in Abuja. The project will provide a central database for medical records of everyone so that wherever you are you can access your medical records.
We thank the chief medical director of National Hospital for accepting that we should use the hospital as a model Centre.
“I also thank Dr, Wada of NISA PREMIERE and Garki Hospital in for also accepting that we should deploy at those places.
“I believe from there the teaching hospitals as well as federal medical centres and of course other hospitals will join and Nigerians will see the need to be on the network. Of what use is it that you keep your record with one hospital in a village and you are in the city, nobody can access the record. It is better you keep your record in a way that even you yourself at home can track what has happened to you as you grow older, you can check it on your app.”
Dr. Leke said the project will also help the federal government to have a dashboard from where they can know that in such a place malaria is prevalent by the reports of that today and plan to send more malaria drugs or nets to the place or take some preventive measures there.
“This programme is actually a government project, if they have removed the subsidy from fuel, these are the kind of credible places they should put the subsidy to support the efforts of NASRDA to deploy facilities for telemedicine across the 774 local government areas of the federation. The facility in NASRDA is a private body that is paying for it now with a view to recouping the money in the future,” he said.